HACKLEY HOSTS: Hiring and Retaining Faculty of Color

On May 1, Hackley invited fellow educators to join a webinar conversation with Dr. Travis Bristol on “At the Intersection of Policy and Practice: Hiring and Retaining Faculty of Color.”

Dr. Bristol is Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley. His presentation walked participants through his research on “the intersection of policy and practice”: hiring and retaining faculty of color.

Though Dr. Bristol has committed his career to reflecting on policies within the public school sector, he notes that much of the conversation is the same regardless of the organization’s affiliation. As our schools explore how best to hire and support faculty of color, it is worth reflecting on the many ways our actual processes are misaligned with what our policies outline - in places like school handbooks, hiring protocol, and school mission - as well as what we theoretically hope to achieve.

This conversation did not offer any distinct answers, but rather, sought to provide attendees a platform to reflect on their schools’ current practices, a venue to share out best practices, and the opportunity to ask meaningful questions to an educator who has chosen to dedicate his life to this work.

Dr. Bristol notes, “My research is situated at the intersection of policy and practice and is centered on three interrelated strands: (1) district and school-based practices that support teachers of color; (2) national, state, and local education policies that enable and constrain the workplace experiences and retention for teachers of color; (3) the intersection of race and gender in schools.”

The webinar was open to all educators, with particular benefit for those involved with hiring at their schools.

Presented in collaboration with the Independent Curriculum Group